THE CAMPAIGN TO SAVE AN AREA OF UNIQUE WILDLIFE IN CARDIFF HAS BEEN BOOSTED BY A LETTER WRITTEN BY MEDICS QUESTIONING THE DECISION TO BUILD A NEW CANCER CENTRE ON THE LAND.
On Tuesday, a group of 57 cancer specialists wrote to Wales’ chief medical officer and politicians, questioning the value of building the new Velindre cancer hospital on a standalone site, rather than adjacent to an existing hospital. The current proposals would mean that the Cardiff Northern Meadows, a green area of natural habitat and wildlife, would disappear in its existing form.
As well as welcoming the news, the group also joined forces with other campaigners in a recent march for justice with dozens of other groups in Cardiff.
As soon as plans were announced to build on the site, Save the Northern Meadows campaign was launched in a bid to stop them. The campaign has always maintained that they are not opposed to the development of a new cancer hospital but dispute the idea that it should be built on the meadows.
They point to what they say is a more effective brown filed site next to the existing centre. This has been earmarked for a new property development instead, however.
The campaign has held lively demonstrations and also joined the recent 1,000 strong march for justice in Cardiff. It is part of a wider battle going happening in the capital against rampant development which threatens precious green space. Both Sanatorium Park and Britannia Park are being destroyed to make way for new developments in the face of fierce opposition.
The Save the Northern Meadows campaign says the green area is of vital importance to the whole population of Cardiff but particularly for nearby residents living in flats with no garden, an issue that became more relevant during the recent lock down.
“The tragedy of Covid-19 has illustrated beyond all doubt how much the citizens of Cardiff depend on green space for health and well-being, and the Northern Meadows provide an oasis of calm within a busy and fast-growing city,” they said.
While the campaign has so far relied on the environmental and social arguments for saving the Northern Meadows, it has now been backed up on specific health grounds as well.
In the letter, signed by surgeons, radiologists, GPs, anaesthetists and palliative care specialists, the medics say the building plans are not fit for purpose and should be independently reviewed.
The campaign has welcomed the news, saying that though the campaign “was never against Velindre specifically,” their “overall intention was and still is, to stop any kind of development on the meadows. The evidence that has been presented supports what we’ve been saying all along.”
“We hope this information… will now result in an open and independent review that will finally confirm the meadows is indeed an unsuitable and actually unsafe location for a new cancer centre,” they said.
They also see their fight as part of a wider struggle for democracy and justice against a system which has failed both people and planet. This is part of the reason they joined the recent, 1,000 strong March for Justice in Cardiff, supported by over 25 organisations from Black Lives Matter, Extinction Rebellion and the renters unions Acorn. Members of the campaign joined the protest on bikes.
“Communities across Wales and their concerns are routinely dismissed by planning processes. Environmental issues are ‘mitigated’, and developments forced through despite new legislation which explicitly states there should be no regression to biodiversity on development sites,” the campaign told voice.wales
“Further, we recognise these environmental issues, including illegal and dangerous levels of air pollution disproportionately impact black, ethnic minority, and working class communities. The Welsh government has been taken to court three times over illegal levels of air pollution. Yet few resolutions can be made when planning authorities routinely ignore legislation aimed at preventing environmental and climate degradation.”
They say they ‘cannot separate’ themselves from other similar campaigns
“The development of green sites is happening everywhere. Danescourt woods, Sanatorium Park, Britannia Park, the CF3 incinerator, Plasdwr. All demonstrate how communities and the environment are still routinely dismissed by planners, and these are only examples from Cardiff. As a campaign we felt it was appropriate for us to support and amplify voices from local communities facing environmental injustice across South Wales.”
For more information on the campaign see: http://www.savethenorthernmeadows.wales/
